Following an enjoyable trip out to Spain last March, Bill and I decided to head back out there this spring. The prospect of warm climbing and the potential of a long multi pitch climb lured Alex into joining us.

So Wednesday saw Alex and myself flying out to Alicante (Bill was to join us later) to find a short multi pitch climb to give Alex a review of multi pitch climbing techniques. (Previous to this Alex had only ever done one 2 pitch climb.) We managed to find a climb where we could knock a few pitches together so now Alex had done two 2 pitch climbs! Ok, so this practice run had taken far too long, but it was a practice run and I was confident that I‘d see Alex up the Puig, as long as he saw me down it again (it is renowned for its walk off).

Following a night being “buzzed” by dogs as we bivied by the start of the walk in, we awoke to see a slight light appearing in a perfectly clear and still starry sky with a huge piece of rock rising up before us. – The Puig Campana. It couldn’t have been better, I had been seriously worried as high winds had been forecasted and on our previous trip I hadn’t seen the Puig without it being shrouded in cloud.

Having passed a reassuring sign telling us that guns weren’t allowed in this particular olive grove (maybe they should think of putting these up in climbing areas around Montserrat as well!), we approached the start of the Espolón Central Direct. What ensued was 440m of very pleasant and relatively easy climbing (there were a couple of slightly harder and more airy moves higher up) with impressive views inland, down to the coast and out to sea. If you are looking for your first really long multi pitch mountain day climb I’d highly recommend it. The well written about descent, started like back climbing a via ferrata down into a ball bearing style scree gully to the olive grove below. (As the guide says, I imagine this wouldn‘t be fun in cloud or in the dark as you could easily miss some of the markers.)

By 7pm we had been installed in our very comfortable apartment by a very friendly salesman. The apartment had key selling points-very reasonably priced, a balcony view of the Penon, a heated swimming pool and the added bonus of an outward appearance of a Vogon constructor fleet ship!

Well done Alex, an impressive third multi pitch climb- 13 pitches!

The rest of the week included wildlife spotting (bleached flamingos), some great single pitch climbing (a trip back to Bill’s favourite spot- Toix, saw him coming to grips with a 6B+ and found me enjoying a superb 56m climb with my Godfather), some creative cooking and an entertaining experience on the Cliffs of Doom (ok, so they aren’t really called that.)… we’ll be off to warmer climes in November and next spring so why not join us.

Rach